Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The report seeks approval for the Statement of Community Involvement for submission to the Secretary of State and for a six week period of public consultation as required by the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Submission Statement of Community Involvement, as set out in Appendix 1 to this report, is approved for submission to the Secretary of State and for a six week period of statutory public consultation; and that

2.2 Delegate to the Assistant Director Planning and Transport Development in conjunction with Council Executive Member for Sustainability and the Environment the authority to make minor editorial, formatting and presentation changes to the document prior to being submitted to the Secretary of State and published for public consultation.

3

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The resources required to progress the Statement of Community Involvement are included in within the financial plan for 2007/8 to be considered by Council on 20 February 2007.

3.2 Report will be updated following the Council Budget on 20 February 2007.

4 COMMUNITY STRATEGY OUTCOMES

5 CORPORATE IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

7 THE REPORT

7.1 One of the main themes of the reform of the planning system is to make planning more accessible to the public and to strengthen community involvement. Under this new regime local authorities are now required to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which will help achieve the Government's ambition for effective community involvement at the early stages of plan making and at other stages during the process.

7.2 The principal objective of the SCI is to make sure that all sectors of the community have the opportunity to participate, including those harder to reach groups, during the process of preparing Local Development Documents (LDDs) i.e. planning documents and for planning applications. The SCI should set out Council's vision and strategy for community involvement and how this links with other community involvement initiatives especially the Council's Community Strategy.

7.3 The SCI will also identify how and when the community will be involved and consulted during the preparation of all LDDs listed in the Local Development Scheme, and planning applications. It will also identify who will be consulted and the resources for carrying out such consultation.

7.4 Once the SCI is adopted the Council must follow the approach for community engagement outlined in the document for the preparation of any subsequent planning documents and in relation to consultation on planning applications.

7.5 The agreed timetable for the production of the SCI as set out in Local Development Scheme (LDS) is summarised below:

7.6 The content of the draft SCI has taken account of advice in `Planning Policy Statement 12: Local Development Frameworks' and `Creating Local Development Frameworks - A Companion Guide to PPS12' and other relevant Government guidance on planning and consultation. It has also been informed by the results of an informal consultation exercise which took place during May and June 2006.

7.7 The Pre-Submission SCI was agreed for a six week period of statutory consultation in November 2006. This consultation took place between 23 November 2007 and 17 January 2007 (a two-week extension was given to take into account the Christmas period).

7.8 A wide range of methods were used to publicise the consultation, including the use of local media, locally displayed posters and direct mail outs to over 600 local stakeholders (including Parish Councils, local interest groups, community groups etc). In addition a separate questionnaire designed to consult young people, to which 35 young people responded either in writing or verbally to youth workers.

7.9 The Council received a total of 94 responses to the main questionnaire supplementary to the responses to the young people's questionnaire. Respondents included 18 Resident's Associations, 25 Parish Councils, local and national interest groups, residents and the businesses.

7.10 There was strong support for the ambition that B&NES should go beyond the minimum requirements for consultation in planning and for the publication of the SCI to clarify what the standards are and how community consultation will occur. There was also support for the broad range of methods proposed to facilitate consultation and the need to target consultation methods to access the harder to reach groups as outlined.

7.11 The main issues raised about the SCI were as follows:

7.12 The SCI is scheduled to be submitted to the Secretary of State in April 2007 (see table above). The Council is also required to invite representations on the SCI for a statutory 6 week period in accordance with Regulation 29 commencing from the date of submission to the Secretary of State. This will involve sending copies of the document inviting respondents to complete a questionnaire to all those previously consulted and other bodies to whom the Council considers the document is likely to find relevant. Appendix B of the attached SCI lists the types of consultation bodies as advised in PPS12.

7.13 A statutory notice will also be placed in local newspaper inviting representations on the Submission SCI and copies of the document will be made available for inspection in Council offices at Trimbridge House, The Hollies, Riverside and the Town Hall Keynsham, similarly in all libraries in the district. Details of the consultation alongside the draft document and the questionnaire will also be made available on the Council's website and advertised on the Council's e-bulletin.

7.14 The anticipated dates for this consultation period will be the six week period between 19 March and 30 May 2007.

7.15 The Council will need to prepare a summary of any representations made on the Submission SCI and forward a summary of the main issues raised together with copies of the representation forms to the Secretary of State. Local authorities are advised not to propose changes to the Submission SCI prior to the Examination. The independent Examination, at which the SCI will be judged as to whether it meets nine tests of `soundness', is anticipated towards the end of 2007. The SCI will be finally adopted in 2008 following receipt of the Inspector's binding report.

8 RISK MANAGEMENT

8.1 The report author and Lead Executive member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

9 RATIONALE

9.1 It is a requirement under Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 for the Council to produce a Statement of Community Involvement and submit the final version to the Secretary of State in parallel with a period of public consultation on the Submission Draft document.

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 None (see para 9.1).

11 CONSULTATION

11.1 The following have been consulted as part of the preparation of the SCI: Ward Councillor; Executive Councillor; Parish Council; Town Council; Staff; Other B&NES Services; Service Users; Local Residents; Community Interest Groups; Stakeholders/Partners; Other Public Sector Bodies; Section 151 Finance Officer; Chief Executive; Monitoring Officer.

11.2 Informal consultation has already taken place with key stakeholders, local organisations and local community groups during May/June 2006 as outlined in paras 7.6 and the Council formally consulted on the draft SCI during November and December 2006 (see paras 7.7 - 7.11). A second statutory period of public consultation will take place during April and May 2007 as outlined in paras 7.12 - 7.14 The SCI has also been prepared in discussion with other relevant Services within the Council including Corporate Projects, Marketing & Communication and the Equalities Team.

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 The Statement of Community Involvement has implications in terms of the following: Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Human Resources; Young People; Equality (age, race, disability, religion/belief, gender, sexual orientation); Human Rights; Corporate issues; and its preparation is a requirement under Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

13.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Resources Director) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.